Minestrone Soup

Back in the day (the way-back day) when I was in college, I had a brief love affair with minestrone soup. I can’t remember my mom ever making it at home, nor do I remember having it from a can at any point, so I had already spent about 20 years on this earth without minestrone being on my radar. Enter night class. One particular semester I had a night class in a building that was on the outskirts of campus. (As outskirted as you could be up on the bluff!) I would always wander over to Fisher Hall a little early and stop at the little cafe that was nestled in the bottom floor of the building to grab something to eat before class. On a particularly chilly night when I was craving something warm I decided to try the minestrone soup. Not being a vegetable lover, I was shocked at how much I adored that little bowl of soup. I loved the warmth, the heartiness, the beans, and it made me feel at home. From that night on, the minestrone soup was my Monday night ritual before class, and I loved it each and every time. I haven’t eaten it much since college, but always think about how I need to wrangle a recipe that I love, and I’ve finally done so. And it’s every bit as wonderful as I remembered.

This is one of the simplest soups I have ever made, but it does contain one key ingredient – a piece of Parmesan cheese rind. The rind simmers away with the soup and helps to create more of a stock, with an intensified and more developed flavor than if you leave it out. I highly recommend not skipping this!

One of the best things about this recipe is that it is easily customizable to suit your tastes (and what’s currently in your refrigerator). Mix and match flavors, different vegetables, and even types of beans. Want to use kale instead of spinach? Go for it! This is a great formula for a completely customizable vegetable and bean soup.

Directions:

Bring the leeks, carrots, onion, celery, potato, zucchini, spinach, tomatoes, water, cheese rind, and salt to a boil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender but still hold their shape, about 1 hour. Remove and discard the cheese rind.

Add the beans and cook just until heated through, about 5 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat. Stir in the pesto. Adjust the seasonings, adding pepper and more salt, if necessary. Serve immediately.

Does all the content of the canned tomato go into the soup, or just the tomatoes? I thought whether the juice from the can should go in as well. Thanks for sharing, your blog is always an inspiration source for me :)

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/tosi-s-minestrone-soup-174830/ Here is a link to the best Minestrone I can find, Tosi’s Minestrone. Tosi’s is a high class Italian restaurant in Southwest Michigan, where I live. It has strong ties to Chicago which is a little more than 100 miles away. Also associated with the Tosi’s is the Bit O’ Swiss bakery which has a national reputation for fine french breads and pastries. Tim Foley owns the Bakery and has been awards for his breads both awards from the US bakers guild and the French. Pretty sure you will not be this way but file it away as a place to visit if ever traveling in the Stevensville, MI area between Chicago and Detroit.

Made this tonight – SO GOOD!!! I signed up for a farm share and wanted to use the kale in something yummy and I remembered you said kale would work in this too! The farm share also came with some radishes so I added those as well. Best minestrone I have ever had!!

I’ve already made this soup twice, and, WOW, IS THIS RECIPE A KEEPER OR WHAT?! It’s definitely, hands down, the best minestrone I’ve ever had. Although, truth be told, the competition wasn’t that fierce, because it’s next to impossible to buy ready-made minestrone where I Iive, and I’d only cooked it once before (it was so bland that I only managed to choke it down with copious amounts of Marmite), but shhh. Let’s just say it was the best ever and leave it at that :D I think it’s the parmesan rind (it gives some nice umami flavour) and the pesto that do the trick. And I really, really love how the various vegetables give you all sorts of different consistencies: there are some soft carrots, and crunchy celery, and creamy potatoes, and seaweed-like spinach. As a die-hard veggie fan, I couldn’t not love this soup even if I tried.

I just tried this soup tonight, and it is delicious! I’ve never made minestrone before… heck I’ve never made most stuff before! I started following some cooking blogs to get ideas and start learning. Really love your blog and recipes. Thanks for helping me get off campbell’s and onto homemade!

I’ve made minestrone many times with a different twist each time. I love this kind of soup/stew and always tend to make it thicker than soup-like. I loved your version we ate tonight. I only made a couple subs…didn’t have zucchini so upped carrots, etc and used young beet greens instead of spinach. Sautéed the initial veggies in a bit of EVOO before adding liquids. I put in a tablespoon of concentrated vegetable base, and used just 6 cups water. The cheese rind is essential to add the richness to a vegetarian soup like this, so be sure to get one. Love the pesto addition to give it the Italian seasoning without needing to chop a lot of herbs. So satisfying ..perfect for a Sunday football dinner!

We were making some kind of puree soup in class one night (I’m in culinary school) and the girl forgot to take the Parmesan rind out before pureeing it, and the texture was awful. But the flavor from that cheese was unbelievable!